Olof Palme

Olof Palme (30 January 1927-28 February 1986) was the Prime Minister of Sweden from 14 October 1969 to 8 October 1976, succeeding Tage Erlander and preceding Thorbjorn Falldin and from 8 October 1982 to 28 February 1986, succeeding Thorbjorn Falldin and preceding Ingvar Carlsson. He was a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and was a supporter of the leftist revolutions in Cuba and Cambodia, although being a critic of both Soviet Union and United States foreign policies. Palme was murdered on 28 February 1986.

Biography
Olof Palme was born on 30 January 1927 in Stockholm, Sweden to a father of Dutch descent and a mother of Baltic German descent. He traveled to the Third World and United States while he was young, seeing racial segregation and inequality in the countries, shaping his political views. In 1951, he became a member of the social democratic student association in Stockholm before joining the Swedish Social Democratic Party. In 1957 Palme was elected to the Riksdag as the representative from Jonkoping County, and he became friends with Bernt Carlsson, who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988 while serving as the United Nations envoy to Namibia. Palme was elected as Prime Minister for the first time on 14 October 1969 at the height of the Cold War, and he increased the amount of pensions given to the elderly and disabled. Although he was a strong opponent of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, he criticized the Soviet Union's quelling of the Prague Spring and criticized Gustav Husak's government in Czechoslovakia for beng "the cattle of dictatorship". Sweden gave political and financial support to the African National Union, Palestine Liberation Organization, and Polisario Front, and in December 1972 comments comparing the United States bombing of Hanoi to the bombing of Guernica and World War II atrocities by Nazi Germany led to a diplomatic freeze.

In 1976, Palme's government lost in a landslide defeat, breaking 40 years of Social Democratic Party rule over Sweden. Palme was re-elected on 8 October 1982, having mediated for the United Nations during the Iran-Iraq War. However, on 28 February 1986 he was fatally shot in the back at close range by drug addict and criminal Christer Pettersson, and his wife Lisbet was grazed by another bullet. An investigation in 2008 by Germany concluded that the UBDA of Yugoslavia had assassinated him.